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Family and
Community Engagement is Something Good Schools Do
Tom Capretta
Family and Children Community Coordinator
4/5/2018
Tracy Hill is the executive director of the Office of Family and
Community Engagement at Cleveland Metropolitan School District and one
of the 2014 Education Week Leaders to Learn From. The first time I
heard her say, “Family and community engagement is something that good
schools do,” it just clicked. She made the point simply and powerfully.
Family engagement and community engagement are not separate from the
everyday work of schools and districts. They are, in fact, critical to
the success of that work. Research even shows that effective family and
community engagement can result in better grades, test scores,
attendance and enrollment in more challenging courses.
Because engagement with families and communities is so critical to
school success, it is a part of any quality effort to improve schools.
For example, when a district carries out the Ohio Improvement Process,
the district must work with families and communities to collect data,
determine needs, develop an improvement plan, work the plan and
evaluate the plan. As the district does this work, it develops mutual
relationships with families and community members. This allows everyone
to recognize their roles in improving students’ education.
At a webinar I attended in August 2017, Ron Mirr, president of the
Center for Active Family Engagement (CAFÉ), shared this process in
simpler terms. Below are the five steps he outlined for meaningful and
organized engagement:
Commit: To get buy-in from the community and families, districts and
schools must clearly define family and community engagement. Districts
should develop policies that create a clear direction for engagement.
Districts and organizations in the community must develop and subscribe
to shared beliefs about family and community engagement.
Assess: Districts and schools must assess the environment they operate
in. To do this, they should survey stakeholders, review what they are
already doing and identify opportunities for growth.
Plan: Districts and schools should develop a team of parents,
caretakers, students and community members. Writing a plan that
includes all parties establishes a foundation of mutual trust. To be
successful, schools and districts also must provide training to staff
about how to engage families and the community.
Implement: Districts and schools must move beyond traditional
professional development and provide coaching. Their plans must include
processes for checking progress and provide the necessary resources for
success.
Sustain: Engagement is not a one-time event. School and district teams
must routinely review data and, if needed, adjust what they are doing.
They should openly create and share the next steps in the process with
their stakeholders.
These steps align to the Ohio Improvement Process. They also are
accessible to parents and community members. Intentionally engaging
families and communities establishes trust. Trust leads to meaningful
collaboration and support in other areas.
The draft of EachChild=OurFuture, Ohio’s five-year strategic plan for
education, includes Eight Guiding Principles that recognize the
importance of family and community engagement. The goal of the
strategic plan is to help each child become successful with the
guidance and support of caring, empowered adults. The plan itself is
the product of engagement with more than 150 preK-12 educators, higher
education representatives, parents and caregivers, employers, business
leaders and philanthropic organizations. In fact, the draft is still
being discussed at public regional meetings around Ohio. You can read
more about EachChild=OurFuture and comment on the draft here.
Ohio and the nation are realizing the importance of family and
community engagement. It is the perfect time for our state to be the
meeting place for the 2018 National Family and Community Engagement
Conference. The conference, hosted by the Institute for Educational
Leadership, will be in Cleveland July 11-13. More than 1,300 people are
expected to attend, and there will be more than 75 workshops. This is
an excellent opportunity to see how schools and communities around the
country are realizing mutual goals and making the most of
family-school-community partnerships. Participants will leave the
conference with strategies, tips and tools they can immediately apply
to their work. To learn more, please visit the conference website or
contact me directly.
Tom Capretta is the family and children community coordinator at the
Ohio Department of Education. He supports districts in their efforts to
implement effective family and community engagement strategies and
serve vulnerable student groups, including students in foster care.
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